It generally just seems like a bad idea to trigger processing of LESS (or SASS) with a page load. Honestly, CodeKit does so much more than just compile your stylesheet into CSS that it doesn’t even seem worth it to me. You should still be generating minified CSS and Javascript as well as optimizing your images. Plus the syntax checking I get on my Javascript. Not to mention all the cool stuff it does with my browser. I’d still be using CodeKit even if I didn’t have to worry about compiling SASS.

Andrew Powers:

One of the coolest things about implementing LESS inside of the framework is that we’re able to dynamically control colors and typography based on user selections. This allows us to design things well, while still giving users the ability to customize colors and type.

Since WordPress 3.4, there is a theme customizer built in that allows you to dynamically control colors and typography based on user selections. Otto has a couple of really good articles on how to use it. The first, How to leverage the Theme Customizer in your own themes, is a good introduction to the customizer. I was happy find that there’s even Javascript that reloads the page within the customizer if you choose a new color so you don’t have to save it and manually reload to see what it will look like (possibly only in 3.5 and up).

Users are able to actually add their own LESS in the admin options panel. They can use common variables for the background color or main fonts.

If your users want to write custom code for their theme, don’t add a textarea to your admin panel that allows them to write code, encourage them to write a child theme — it’s what they’re here for.